Collection: Those Were the Days!

Exhibition statement

Bonnie Thorne, a painter who came to the discipline in her sixties, takes a loose, gestural approach, giving her work an easy lightheartedness that reflects the artist’s own effervescence. “I like to see people smile,” she says. 

Thorne’s narrative paintings playfully explore past and present, reality and fantasy, referencing elements of pop culture, personal history, and nostalgia. Her work is an array of eccentric portraits, quiet interiors, busy park scenes, and famous bands reimagined. Mischievous dogs, human-like cats, and nursery rhyme reboots. Rock star tributes, coffee dates, birthday parties, and lighthearted city scenes.  

Thorne, a beloved friend and thoughtful leader in the Interact studio, sees becoming an artist later in life – and cultivating a community around her creative work – as a pivotal moment. She describes the practice of painting as a sort of remedy, a steadfast routine that has elicited joy and carried her through the ups and downs of her own physical and mental health. The exhibition includes a collaboration with her friend and fellow artist, Lucy Picasso. 

Artist Statement

I like to do my art because it makes me feel good. To me, art is a source of your feelings that you have had in the past and in the present. I like my art to really stand out, where somebody can really say, “Oh, this is a Bonnie painting.” They might notice the bright colors and the different personalities in my characters. Sometimes people say, “Is this you from years ago?” I laugh. Sometimes it’s true.  

Those Were the Days is named after a poem that I wrote. It’s about me growing up with seven siblings and getting into trouble, and then having my own family and my adorable kids, then being a grandma. The poem ends with me looking back on my past to say, “I can’t complain. Life’s been full.” 

Now I’m having the first art show I’ve ever had in my 72 years, and it feels so amazing!